How to Avoid a Difficult Tenant

Here are some helpful tips to remember when looking for a tenant.

• When you advertise for a tenant, make it clear that you do background and credit checks;

• Ask any tenant to complete a detailed rental application, showing every place they have lived at least in the past 5 years;

• Ask for a current cheque stub from their place of employment, as proof that they are regularly employed;

• Ask for at least 3 personal references and call each one, including any prior landlord;

• Interview the tenant where they currently live, to see for yourself how they treat someone else's property;

• Check out the tenant on social media - whether it is pictures that they post or blogs that they may have written. For example, if you search Andreas Pirelli, the Alberta tenant referred to above on linked in, you will see that he claims to be the senior chief justice at Tacit Supreme law court;

• Have the property regularly inspected, to make sure that the tenant is properly maintaining the property and not causing any damages;

• Treat your tenants with ongoing respect, and they will look after your property better; consider a gift card if rent is always paid on time, or a Christmas present.